Friday, April 16, 2010

Regal by Janette Slack

Snow leopards are currently hunted for their bones, skin, and organs, which are used in Traditional Chinese medicine. Human livestock practices have also pushed leopard numbers out of their natural habitat, at the same time damaging vital grassland that the leopards' wild prey needs to survive. With the disappearance of wild prey, snow leopards are forced to hunt livestock. As a result, they are often persecuted and killed.

Because snow leopards are so elusive, it is hard to know just exactly how many of these majestic animals still exist in the world today.